The Metamorphosis is a
novellaA novella is a written, fictional, prose narrative usually longer than a novelette but shorter than a novel. The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America Nebula Awards for science fiction define the novella as having a word count between 17,500 and 40,000...
by
Franz KafkaFranz Kafka was a culturally influential German-language author of short stories and novels. Contemporary critics and academics, including Vladimir Nabokov, regard Kafka as one of the best writers of the 20th century...
, first published in
1915The year 1915 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:* May 3 - In Flanders Fields is written by Canadian poet John McCrae....
. It is often cited as one of the seminal works of short fiction of the 20th century and is widely studied in colleges and universities across the western world. The story begins with a traveling salesman, Gregor Samsa, waking to find himself transformed into a monstrous insect-like creature.
Plot summary
Gregor Samsa wakes up to find that he has been transformed into a giant insect-like creature. Gregor briefly examines his new body, but wonders only momentarily about what has happened to him. His attention quickly switches to observing his room, which he finds very ordinary but a bit small, and a framed magazine clipping of a woman in fur hanging up on the wall. Since he cannot turn on his side, Gregor cannot fall asleep, so instead he begins thinking about his job. He is a traveling salesman, and he hates traveling because he dislikes worrying and getting up early. Gregor's boss at work is extremely tyrannical, and Gregor wants to quit the job but cannot do so until he has paid off the debts that his parents owe the boss.
Gregor wants to get up to go to work, but suddenly realizes that he is already late and must have missed the alarm. He cannot call in sick because he has not missed a day of work in five years and it would look suspicious. Gregor's mother calls to him, and he answers her, noticing that his voice is changing. Gregor's father and Grete, his sister, realize that he is still at home and try to enter his room, but he has locked his doors and they cannot get in. Gregor attempts to get out of bed, but finds this very difficult. He realizes that he is now very late, and lies back hoping that some clear thinking will resolve the situation. Suddenly the doorbell rings and the chief clerk comes into the apartment.
As the family entreats Gregor to open the door, he refuses. Mrs. Samsa insists that Gregor must be ill or he would not be acting like this. The chief clerk loses his temper and tells Gregor that he is shocked by his attitude, insisting that his position in the company is not unassailable because his work has been poor lately. Gregor is angered by this speech, and insists that he is simply feeling slightly indisposed but will soon return to work. He retorts that his business has not been bad lately. Because of the changes in Gregor's voice, no one outside understands a word he says. Fearing he is ill, his parents send Grete and the servant girl to get the doctor and the locksmith. With great difficulty Gregor manages to open the door by himself.
Seeing Gregor, the chief clerk backs away while his father begins to weep. Gregor begs the chief clerk to explain the situation at the office and to stand up for him. He says that he will gladly come back to work and asks the chief clerk not to leave without agreeing with him. Gregor tries to stop the clerk so as to keep him from leaving with such a negative view of things, but then his mother, backing away, knocks over a coffee pot, causing a commotion and giving the chief clerk an opportunity to get away. Gregor's father picks up a walking stick to drive Gregor back into his room. Gregor gets stuck in the doorway, and his father shoves him through, injuring him in the process, and slams the door behind him.
Gregor wakes up at twilight and smells food. He realizes that his sister had brought him milk with bread in it. Gregor attempts to drink the milk, but finds that he is repulsed by the taste. Gregor notices that his father is not reading the paper to the family as he usually does and there is complete silence in the apartment. He wants someone to come in his room, but the doors are locked from the outside and no one will enter. Gregor climbs under the couch, where he feels more comfortable, and decides that he has to help his family through this difficult situation. Gregor's sister brings him a variety of foods in order to determine what he will eat. She throws away everything he does not finish, even if he has not touched it. Gregor hides under the couch to protect Grete from having to see him.
Assuming that Gregor cannot understand anything, no one talks to him directly, so he learns what is happening by listening to their conversations through the door. He finds out that the family has money saved from his father's business, which had collapsed five years ago. Gregor had not known about this money, and when his father's business fell apart, he had thrown himself into his work in order to provide for his family. The family's initial excitement of receiving his earnings had worn off, however, and he remained intimate only with Grete, whom he had wanted to send to the Conservatory to study the violin.
Gregor watches his movements carefully, since any noise he makes distracts his family. He learns from their conversations that in addition to money from the business, the family has also saved money from his salary, but it is not enough to live off of for very long. Gregor feels deep shame every time money is mentioned. He finds that his vision is getting worse, so that he can no longer see across the street. Every time Grete walks into the room, she runs to open the window, which bothers Gregor. Realizing that his sister is uncomfortable in his presence, Gregor figures out a way to cover himself with a sheet to keep out of sight. Gregor's parents never come into his room, and when his mother begs to see her son, the others hold her back.
Gregor discovers that he enjoys climbing the walls and the ceiling. Noticing this, his sister decides to give him more space by clearing the furniture from his room, and she asks her mother to help. Gregor's mother says that this will make it look like they are giving up on Gregor's recovery, but Grete disagrees. Hearing his mother's voice, Gregor realizes the importance of the furniture to him. The noise that the women make upsets him, and he decides to come out of hiding to save the framed picture on the wall from being taken. Seeing him, his mother faints and Grete runs out of the room for medicine to revive her with. Gregor follows and when his sister sees him she runs into his room and slams the door, trapping Gregor outside. His father arrives to find him out of his room and begins throwing apples at him. One of these lodges itself in Gregor's back, almost crippling him. As he loses consciousness, his mother begs her husband to spare her son's life.
Gregor's injury makes the family decide to be more accepting of him, and they leave his door open so he can watch them. They are very quiet most of the time and extremely tired from the jobs they have taken. No one bothers with Gregor too much. They have replaced the servant girl with a charwoman. Gregor, lying in his room, resorts to his memory. The family considers moving, but cannot because they do not know how to move Gregor. He becomes angry that he is being neglected. Grete barely cleans his room and does not bother very much with his food anymore. When his mother tries to clean the room in Grete's absence, this triggers a family fight.
The charwoman, discovering Gregor, is not repulsed but rather spends her time teasing him, which annoys him to no end. Three lodgers have moved into the apartment, and the excess furniture, as well as all superfluous junk, is moved into Gregor's room so that he barely has room to move. He also stops eating almost entirely. The door to his room is now usually kept closed because of the lodgers, but Gregor does not care any more and often ignores it even when it's open.
The lodgers, who are domineering and receive too much service and respect from Gregor's parents, ask Grete to play the violin in the living room when they hear her practicing. She begins to play, but the lodgers are soon tired of this and move away to show that they are disappointed with her playing. Gregor, however, is drawn to the music and crawls out of his room to get closer, dreaming of getting Grete to play for him in his room and of telling her about his plans to send her to the Conservatory. The lodgers suddenly notice Gregor and give notice immediately, saying they will not pay for the time they have lived there.
Grete steps forward and tells her parents that they have to get rid of Gregor. He is persecuting them and trying to drive them out of the apartment and, if he really were Gregor, he would have left of his own accord and let them live their lives in peace. Suddenly realizing that he feels only love and tenderness for his family, Gregor understands that his sister is right and he should disappear. He returns to his room, waits until sunrise, and dies.
Gregor's family is happy, but they also mourn his passing. Mr. Samsa instantly kicks the lodgers out and the family decides to take the day off from work and go for a stroll. They feel relieved and the future seems bright to them. The parents notice that their daughter has grown up and decide that it is time to find her a husband. At the end of their trip, she is the first to stand up and stretch.
Gregor Samsa
Gregor is the main character of the story. He works as a traveling salesman in order to provide money for his sister and parents. He wakes up one morning as a large insect-like creature. After the metamorphosis, Gregor is unable to work. This prompts his family to begin working once again.
The name "Gregor Samsa" appears to derive partly from literary works Kafka had read. The hero of
The Story of Young Renate Fuchs, by German-Jewish novelist
Jakob WassermannJakob Wassermann was a Jewish-German writer and novelist.- Life :Born in Fürth, Wassermann was the son of a shopkeeper and lost his mother at an early age. He showed literary interest early and published various pieces in small newspapers...
(1873–1934), is a certain Gregor Samsa. The Viennese author
Leopold von Sacher-MasochLeopold Ritter von Sacher-Masoch was an Austrian writer and journalist, who gained renown for his romantic stories of Galician life. The term masochism is derived from his name....
, whose sexual imagination gave rise to the idea of masochism, is also an influence. Sacher-Masoch (note the letters Sa-Mas) wrote
Venus in FursVenus in Furs is a novella by Austrian author Leopold von Sacher-Masoch, the best known of his works. The novel was part of an epic series that Sacher-Masoch envisioned called Legacy of Cain. Venus in Furs was part of Love, the first volume of the series...
(1870), a novel whose hero assumes the name Gregor at one point. A "Venus in furs" literally recurs in
The MetamorphosisThe Metamorphosis is a novella by Franz Kafka, first published in 1915. It is often cited as one of the seminal works of short fiction of the 20th century and is widely studied in colleges and universities across the western world...
in the picture that Gregor Samsa has hung on his bedroom wall. The name Samsa is similar to Kafka in its play of vowels and consonants: "Five letters in each word. The S in the word Samsa has the same position as the K in the word Kafka. The A "is in the second and fifth positions in both words."
Gregor Samsa appears to be based upon Kafka himself. As when Kafka suffered from
InsomniaInsomnia is most often defined by an individual's report of sleeping difficulties. While the term is sometimes used in sleep literature to describe a disorder demonstrated by polysomnographic evidence of disturbed sleep, insomnia is often defined as a positive response to either of two questions:...
he feared he was repulsive and a burden to his family, during this time his sister was his caretaker.
Grete Samsa
Grete is Gregor's younger sister, who becomes his caretaker after the metamorphosis. Initially Grete and Gregor have a close relationship but this quickly fades. While Grete initially volunteers to feed him and clean his room, she grows more and more impatient with the burden and begins to leave his room in disarray out of spite. She plays the violin and dreams of going to the conservatory, a dream Gregor had intended to make happen. Gregor planned on making the announcement on Christmas Eve. To help provide an income for the family after Gregor's transformation she starts working as a salesgirl.
Mr. Samsa
Mr.Samsa is Gregor's father. After the metamorphosis, he is forced to return to work in order to support the family financially. His attitude towards his son is harsh; he regards the transformed Gregor with disgust and possibly even fear.
Mrs. Samsa
Mrs Samsa is Grete and Gregor's mother. She is initially shocked at Gregor's transformation, however she wants to enter his room. This proves too much for her, thus giving rise to a conflict between her maternal impulse and sympathy and her fear and revulsion of Gregor's new form.
Translation
Kafka's sentences often deliver an unexpected impact just before the full stop—that being the finalizing meaning and focus. This is achieved from the construction of sentences in the original German, which requires that the participle be positioned at the end of the sentence. For example, in the opening sentence, it is the final word,
verwandelt, that indicates transformation:
These constructions are not directly replicable in English, so it is up to the translator to provide the reader with the effect of the original text.
English translators have often sought to render the word
Ungeziefer as "insect", but this is not strictly accurate. In Middle German,
Ungeziefer literally means "unclean animal not suitable for sacrifice" and is sometimes used colloquially to mean "bug" – a very general term, unlike the scientific sounding "insect". Kafka had no intention of labeling Gregor as any specific thing, but instead wanted to convey Gregor's disgust at his transformation. The phrasing used in the David Wyllie translation and
Joachim NeugroschelJoachim Neugroschel was a well known literary translator from French, German, Italian, Russian, and Yiddish, and also to German. He also published poetry and was a poetry magazine founder.- Biography :...
is "transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect."
However, in Kafka's letter to his publisher of 25 October 1915, in which he discusses his concern about the cover illustration for the first edition, he uses the term
Insekt, saying "The insect itself is not to be drawn. It is not even to be seen from a distance."
Ungeziefer has sometimes been translated as "
cockroachCockroaches are insects of the order Blattaria or Blattodea, of which about 30 species out of 4,500 total are associated with human habitations...
", "
dung beetleDung beetles are beetles that feed partly or exclusively on feces. All of these species belong to the superfamily Scarabaeoidea; most of them to the subfamilies Scarabaeinae and Aphodiinae of the family Scarabaeidae. This beetle can also be referred to as the scarab beetle. As most species of...
", "
beetleColeoptera is an order of insects commonly called beetles. The word "coleoptera" is from the Greek , koleos, "sheath"; and , pteron, "wing", thus "sheathed wing". Coleoptera contains more species than any other order, constituting almost 25% of all known life-forms...
", and other highly specific terms. The term "dung beetle" or
Mistkäfer is in fact used in the novella by the cleaning lady near the end of the story, but it is not used in the narration.
Ungeziefer also denotes a sense of separation between himself and his environment: he is unclean and must therefore be secluded.
Vladimir NabokovVladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov was a multilingual Russian novelist and short story writer. Nabokov wrote his first nine novels in Russian, then rose to international prominence as a master English prose stylist...
, who was a
lepidopteristA lepidopterist is a person who specialises in the study of Lepidoptera, members of an order encompassing moths and the three superfamilies of butterflies, skipper butterflies, and moth-butterflies...
as well as writer and literary critic, insisted that Gregor was not a cockroach, but a beetle with wings under his shell, and capable of flight. Nabokov left a sketch annotated "just over three feet long" on the opening page of his (heavily corrected) English teaching copy. In his accompanying lecture notes, Nabokov discusses the type of insect Gregor has been transformed into, concluding that Gregor "is not, technically, a dung beetle. He is merely a big beetle."
Adaptations to other media
There are many film versions of the story, mostly short films, including a 1975 TV version by
Jan NěmecJan Němec is a Czech filmmaker whose most important work dates from the 1960s. Film historian Peter Hames has described him as the "enfant terrible of the Czech New Wave."- Biography :...
, a 1977
animationAnimation is the rapid display of a sequence of images of 2-D or 3-D artwork or model positions in order to create an illusion of movement. The effect is an optical illusion of motion due to the phenomenon of persistence of vision, and can be created and demonstrated in several ways...
by
Caroline LeafCaroline Leaf is a Canadian-American filmmaker and animator.Leaf made her first film, Sand, or Peter and the Wolf, in 1968 at Harvard University. The short was made by dumping sand on a light box and manipulating the textures frame-by-frame.Her second film, Orfeo , had her painting directly on...
, a 1987 TV movie by
Jim GoddardJim Goddard is an English film and TV director born in London on February 2, 1936. He has directed episodes of many UK TV series such as Public Eye, Callan, Special Branch, The Sweeney, The Ruth Rendell Mysteries, The Bell and Holby City...
, a 1993 video by
Carlos AtanesCarlos Atanes is a Spanish film director and writer.Born in Barcelona, Spain, Atanes has written and directed many works since 1987, using different genres and techniques . In 1991, he shot The Marvellous World of the Cucu Bird, which has been followed by another experimental works as El Tenor...
, and a longer (80-minute) 2002 version directed by
RussiaRussia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
n theatrical director
Valery FokinValery Fokin is a Russian theatrical director and writer. He is the General and Artistic Director of The Meyerhold Centre in Moscow and the Artistic Director of the Alexandrinksy Theatre in St. Petersburg. Fokin is decorated with four honorary Russian state awards.-Biography:Fokin was born in...
.
A stage adaptation was performed by
Steven BerkoffSteven Berkoff is an English actor, writer and director. Best known for his performance as General Orlov in the James Bond film Octopussy, he is typically cast in villanous roles, such as Lt...
in 1969. Berkoff's text was also used for the
librettoA libretto is the text used in an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata, or musical. The term "libretto" is also sometimes used to refer to the text of major liturgical works, such as mass, requiem, and sacred cantata, or even the story line of a...
to Brian Howard's 1983
operaOpera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
Metamorphosis.
Another stage adaptation was performed in 2006 as a co-production of the
IcelandIceland , described as the Republic of Iceland, is a Nordic and European island country in the North Atlantic Ocean, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Iceland also refers to the main island of the country, which contains almost all the population and almost all the land area. The country has a population...
ic company Vesturport and the
LondonLondon is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
-based
Lyric HammersmithThe Lyric Theatre, also known as the Lyric Hammersmith, is a theatre on King Street, in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, which takes pride in its original, "groundbreaking" productions....
, adapted and directed by
Gisli Örn Gardarsson and
David FarrDavid Farr is a writer, theatrical director and Associate Director of the Royal Shakespeare Company.-Background:Farr was brought up in Surrey and educated in Guildford and the University of Cambridge .- Career :...
, with a music soundtrack performed by
Nick CaveNicholas Edward "Nick" Cave is an Australian musician, songwriter, author, screenwriter, and occasional film actor.He is best known for his work as a frontman of the critically acclaimed rock band Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, established in 1984, a group known for its eclectic influences and...
and Warren Ellis, premiering at the Lyric Hammersmith in London. That production has since been performed in 2007 in the
National Theatre of IcelandThe National Theatre of Iceland in Reykjavík, is the national theatre of Iceland.The theater, designed by Guðjón Samúelsson, was formally opened on April 20, 1950. Tinna Gunnlaugsdóttir has been Artistic Director of the theater since 2005.- External links :...
in Reykjavik, Iceland, in a 2008 UK tour in London,
LiverpoolLiverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880...
,
ManchesterManchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...
,
BirminghamBirmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. It is the most populous British city outside the capital London, with a population of 1,036,900 , and lies at the heart of the West Midlands conurbation, the second most populous urban area in the United Kingdom with a...
,
NewcastleNewcastle upon Tyne is a city and metropolitan borough of Tyne and Wear, in North East England. Historically a part of Northumberland, it is situated on the north bank of the River Tyne...
,
PlymouthPlymouth is a city and unitary authority area on the coast of Devon, England, about south-west of London. It is built between the mouths of the rivers Plym to the east and Tamar to the west, where they join Plymouth Sound...
, and again London, also in 2008 in Seoul, South Korea, and Dublin, Ireland, in 2009 in Hong Kong, China, and in Hobart, Tasmania, Wollongong, and
SydneySydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
, all
AustraliaAustralia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
, in 2010 in Bogotá, Colombia, Reykjavik, Iceland, and New York City, USA, and in 2011 in
Saint PetersburgSaint Petersburg is a city and a federal subject of Russia located on the Neva River at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea...
and
NorilskNorilsk is an industrial city in Krasnoyarsk Krai, Russia, located between the Yenisei River and the Taymyr Peninsula. Population: It was granted city status in 1953. It is the northernmost city in Siberia and the world's second largest city north of the Arctic Circle...
, both
RussiaRussia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
. Another stage adaptation was performed in Dhaka, Bangladesh in 2005 by the Centre for Asian Theatre. , that performance was still continuing in Bangladesh.
American cartoonist
Robert CrumbRobert Dennis Crumb —known as Robert Crumb and R. Crumb—is an American artist, illustrator, and musician recognized for the distinctive style of his drawings and his critical, satirical, subversive view of the American mainstream.Crumb was a founder of the underground comix movement and is regarded...
drew a comic adaptation of the novella, which is included in the 1993 book
Introducing KafkaIntroducing Kafka, also known as Kafka for Beginners, is an illustrated biography of Franz Kafka by David Zane Mairowitz and Robert Crumb...
, an illustrated biography of Kafka also known as
Kafka for Beginners,
R. Crumb's Kafka, or simply
Kafka. American comic artist
Peter KuperPeter Kuper is an American alternative cartoonist and illustrator known for his autobiographical, social, and political observations.-Early life:...
illustrated a graphic-novel version, first published by the
Crown Publishing Group-External links:*...
in 2003.
Stage
- Philip Glass
Philip Glass is an American composer. He is considered to be one of the most influential composers of the late 20th century and is widely acknowledged as a composer who has brought art music to the public .His music is often described as minimalist, along with...
composed incidental music for two separate theater productions of the story. These two themes, along with two themes from the Errol MorrisErrol Mark Morris is an American director. In 2003, The Guardian put him seventh in its list of the world's 40 best directors. Also in 2003, his film The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.-Early life and...
film The Thin Blue LineThe Thin Blue Line is a 1988 documentary film by Errol Morris, depicting the story of Randall Dale Adams, a man convicted and sentenced to die for a murder he did not commit. Adams' case was reviewed and he was released from prison approximately a year after the film's release.-Synopsis:The film...
, were incorporated into a five-part piece of music for solo piano entitled Metamorphosis.
- Jewish Community High School of the Bay
The Jewish Community High School of the Bay is a coeducational, college preparatory high school located in the Western Addition Neighborhood of San Francisco, California...
wrote and performed an adaptation of the book, re-imagined as a production performed by a Jewish theater company in the Warsaw Ghetto. They also performed this adaptation at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival (through the American High School Theater Festival) where it received a 4/5 star review from ThreeWeeksThreeWeeks is a newspaper that covers the Brighton and Edinburgh Festivals in May and August respectively.It has covered the Edinburgh Festival since 1996 and the Brighton Festival since 2006.- Education Programme :...
.
Literature
- Marc Estrin
-Early life and education:Estrin was born in Brooklyn, New York. He attended Queens College, studying Chemistry and Biology, then studied Theater Directing at UCLA. Estrin came to novel-writing late. In the fall of 1998, he and his wife Donna were on holiday in Prague and decided to visit the...
's debut surrealist novel Insect Dreams: The Half Life of Gregor Samsa (2002) "resurrects Kafka's half-cockroach Gregor character" vis-à-vis the world between 1915 and 1945.
- Brian Keenan
Brian Keenan may be:*Brian Keenan , Provisional Irish Republican Army member*Brian Keenan , United States musician...
's autobiography An Evil Cradling makes reference to Kafka 'My thoughts were preoccupied by my loss of humanity. Was I a kind of Kafkaesque character transformed out of human form into some animal? Something to be locked away from the world?
- Lance Olsen
- Biography :Lance Olsen received a B.A. from the University of Wisconsin–Madison , an M.F.A. from the Iowa Writers' Workshop , and an M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Virginia...
's novel Anxious Pleasures: A Novel After Kafka retells Kafka's novella from the points of view of those inside his family and out.
Film
- The 2011 short film Metamorphosis, directed by David Yohe and written by Jason Goldberg is inspired by Kafka's literary classic about a teenage boy transforming into a human-sized cockroach. Nick Searcy, Patricia Bethune and Matt Angel star.
- Both the 1968 version
The Producers is a 1968 American satirical dark comedy cult classic film written and directed by Mel Brooks. The film is set in the late 1960s and it tells the story of a theatrical producer and an accountant who want to produce a sure-fire Broadway flop...
and the 2005 version# "Overture" - Orchestra# "Opening Night" - Opening Nighters# "We Can Do It" - Max and Leo# "I Wanna Be a Producer" - Leo, Accountants, Mr. Marks and Dancing Chorus Girls# "Der Guten Tag Hop-Clop" - Franz, Max, and Leo...
of the film The Producers include a scene where the two protagonists are searching for a sure flop. The opening for the play of Metamorphosis is read and rejected for being too good.
- The 2008 film The Reader features Ralph Fiennes
Ralph Nathaniel Twisleton-Wykeham-Fiennes is an English actor and film director. He has appeared in such films as The English Patient, In Bruges, The Constant Gardener, Strange Days, The Duchess and Schindler's List....
reading aloud from Franz Kafka's The Metamorphosis.
- In 2002 a Russian version titled Prevrashchenie was directed by Valery Fokin
Valery Fokin is a Russian theatrical director and writer. He is the General and Artistic Director of The Meyerhold Centre in Moscow and the Artistic Director of the Alexandrinksy Theatre in St. Petersburg. Fokin is decorated with four honorary Russian state awards.-Biography:Fokin was born in...
with Yevgeny MironovYevgeny Mironov is a Russian film and stage actor, Meritorious Artist of Russian Federation , People's Artist of Russia , State Prize of the Russian Federation laureate . Yevgeny Mironov lives and works in Moscow, Russia.- Early life :Yevgeny Mironov was born in Saratov...
as Gregor.
- In 1995, the actor Peter Capaldi
Peter Dougan Capaldi is an Academy Award and BAFTA award winning Scottish actor and film director. In 1995, his short film Franz Kafka's It's a Wonderful Life won the Academy Award for Live Action Short Film...
won an Oscar for his short-film Franz Kafka's It's a Wonderful LifeFranz Kafka's It's a Wonderful Life is a short comic film for BBC Scotland. It was written and directed by Peter Capaldi, it stars Richard E. Grant as Franz Kafka, and co-stars Ken Stott....
. The plot of the film has the author (played by Richard E. GrantRichard E. Grant is a Swaziland-born British actor, screenwriter and director. His most notable role came in the film Withnail and I. He holds dual British and Swazi citizenship.-Early life:...
) trying to write the opening line of Metamorphosis and experimenting with various things that Gregor might turn into, such as a banana or a kangaroo. The film is also notable for a number of Kafkaesque moments.
- In 1993 Carlos Atanes
Carlos Atanes is a Spanish film director and writer.Born in Barcelona, Spain, Atanes has written and directed many works since 1987, using different genres and techniques . In 1991, he shot The Marvellous World of the Cucu Bird, which has been followed by another experimental works as El Tenor...
directed The Metamorphosis of Franz Kafka, a controversial adaptation based on The Metamorphosis as well on biographical details from Kafka's family.
- in Noah Baumbach
Noah Baumbach is an American writer, director and independent filmmaker.-Background and education:Baumbach was born in Brooklyn, New York City, the son of novelist/film critic Jonathan Baumbach and Village Voice critic Georgia Brown. He graduated from Brooklyn's Midwood High School in 1987 and ...
's The Squid and the WhaleThe Squid and the Whale is a 2005 American drama film written and directed by Noah Baumbach and produced by Wes Anderson. It tells the semi-autobiographical story of two boys in Brooklyn dealing with their parents' divorce in the 1980s. The film is named after a giant squid and sperm whale diorama...
, Jeff DanielsJeffrey Warren "Jeff" Daniels is an American actor, musician and playwright. He founded a non-profit theatre company, the Purple Rose Theatre Company, in his home state of Michigan...
's and Jesse EisenbergJesse Adam Eisenberg is an American actor. He made his screen debut with the comedy-drama television series Get Real from 1999 to 2000...
's characters make several references to The Metamorphosis.
- The novella is referenced in the 1986 film The Fly
The Fly is a 1986 science fiction horror film co-written and directed by David Cronenberg. Produced by 20th Century Fox, and Brooksfilms, the film stars Jeff Goldblum, Geena Davis and John Getz. It is a remake of the 1958 film of the same name, but retains only the basic premise of a scientist...
when Seth Brundle, nearing the end of his own metamorphosis into "Brundlefly", says to Ronnie Quaife, "I'm an insect...who dreamt he was a man...and loved it. But now the dream is over...and the insect is awake."
- In the Mel Brooks film Space Balls, Dark Helmet orders the crew of 'Spaceball One' to begin Metamorphosis, prompting Commander Sanders to ask "Ready Kafka?"
Comics
- American cartoonist Robert Crumb
Robert Dennis Crumb —known as Robert Crumb and R. Crumb—is an American artist, illustrator, and musician recognized for the distinctive style of his drawings and his critical, satirical, subversive view of the American mainstream.Crumb was a founder of the underground comix movement and is regarded...
drew an illustrated adaptation of the novella which appears in the book Introducing KafkaIntroducing Kafka, also known as Kafka for Beginners, is an illustrated biography of Franz Kafka by David Zane Mairowitz and Robert Crumb...
.
- In the comic book Johnny the Homicidal Maniac
Johnny the Homicidal Maniac is the first comic book by Jhonen Vasquez. A black comedy and comedy horror, the series tells the story of a fictional serial killer named Johnny C. as he explores the psychological and possibly supernatural forces which compel him to commit a string of murders...
by Jhonen VasquezJhonen Vasquez , also known as Chancre Scolex or simply Mr. Scolex, is an American comic book writer, cartoonist and music video director...
, the eponymous Johnny is plagued by a roach that keeps appearing in his house no matter how many times he kills it (whether or not this roach is immortal or simply many different roaches is up to interpretation) and is affectionately named "Mr. Samsa".
- In The Simpsons
The Simpsons is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical parody of a middle class American lifestyle epitomized by its family of the same name, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie...
book Treehouse of Horror Spook-tacular, Matt GroeningMatthew Abram "Matt" Groening is an American cartoonist, screenwriter, and producer. He is the creator of the comic strip Life in Hell as well as two successful television series, The Simpsons and Futurama....
did a spoofA parody , in current usage, is an imitative work created to mock, comment on, or trivialise an original work, its subject, author, style, or some other target, by means of humorous, satiric or ironic imitation...
on the metamorphosis, entitling it "Metamorphosimpsons".
- Peter Kuper
Peter Kuper is an American alternative cartoonist and illustrator known for his autobiographical, social, and political observations.-Early life:...
(illustrator of Kafka's Give It Up!Give It Up! is a comics adaptation of nine short stories by Franz Kafka drawn by Peter Kuper.In the introduction, by Jules Feiffer, Kuper's adaptations are described as "riffs, visual improvisations."-The Stories:* A Little Fable* The Bridge...
) also adapted Kafka's Metamorphosis.
Music
- Gregor Samsa
Gregor Samsa is a band from Virginia formed in 2000 and fronted by Champ Bennett. It takes its name from the main character of Franz Kafka's novella The Metamorphosis....
is a band from Virginia formed in 2000 and fronted by Champ Bennett.
- The Neue Deutsche Härte
Neue Deutsche Härte is a genre of industrial metal. The term was invented by the German music press after the release of the debut album Herzeleid by Rammstein....
band Samsas TraumSamsas Traum is a band from Germany fronted by Alexander Kaschte now based in Austria. Their music consists of elements of Symphonic metal, Neue Deutsche Härte and Cantastoria. The name is derived from the 1915 novel The Metamorphosis's character Gregor Samsa by Franz Kafka.- Biography :Samsas...
gets its name from the story.
- Widespread Panic
Widespread Panic is an American rock band from Athens, Georgia. The current lineup includes guitarist/singer John Bell, bassist Dave Schools, drummer Todd Nance, percussionist Domingo "Sunny" Ortiz, keyboardist John "JoJo" Hermann, and guitarist Jimmy Herring...
allude to this work in their song "Imitation Leather Shoes" off of the album Don%27t Tell the Band.
- My little brother is an insect / He likes to crawl around his room / His mother shudders at the sight of him / His pappy is a businessman / Every move he makes is torture / He cannot speak words any more / Our sister likes to flip him on his back / And watch little brother squirm
- The christian rock band Showbread
Showbread is an American Christian rock band originating in Guyton, Georgia. More specifically, the band lives in a small community within Guyton called Marlow. They formed in 1997. The band has gone through numerous lineup changes since its formation but maintains its two founding members, Josh...
references The Metamorphosis in their song titled "Samsa Meets Kafka" on their album No Sir, Nihilism Is Not PracticalNo Sir, Nihilism Is Not Practical is an album by the band Showbread. A music video was made for the song "Mouth Like A Magazine".-Track listing:# "A Llama Eats a Giraffe " - 3:51# "Dead By Dawn" - 3:54# "Mouth Like a Magazine" - 4:12...
.
- Extreme metal
Extreme metal is a loosely defined umbrella term for a number of related heavy metal music subgenres that have developed since the early 1980s. The term usually refers to a more abrasive, harsher, underground, non-commercialized style or sound nearly always associated with genres like black metal,...
band Imperial VengeanceImperial Vengeance are an English heavy metal band, from Essex formed in 2007 by former Cradle of Filth guitarist C. Edward Alexander , and David Bryan...
adapted the story into the penultimate track of their 2011 album Black Heart of Empire, "Of Insect and Allegory".
Television
- On the TV Show Home Movies
Home Movies is a dialogue-driven American animated series that originally aired from 1999 to 2004. The plot surrounds eight-year-old Brendon Small , who makes films with his friends Melissa Robbins and Jason Penopolis in his spare time...
, the characters create a rock operaA rock opera is a work of rock music that presents a storyline told over multiple parts, songs or sections in the manner of opera. A rock opera differs from a conventional rock album, which usually includes songs that are not unified by a common theme or narrative. More recent developments include...
based on Metamorphosis.
- In one episode of the television show Arthur (TV series)
Arthur is an American/Canadian animated educational television series for children, created by Cookie Jar Group and WGBH for the Public Broadcasting Service...
, Brain dreams that he is a giant cockroach because he is scornfully referred to as a 'pest' by his friends for being domineering.
- In one episode of the television show My So-Called Life, the characters must read The Metamorphosis and write a paragraph about it as an assignment in English class. Jordan Catalano, Rickie Vasquez, Brian Krakow and Sharon Cherski all discuss the story and the meaning of The Metamorphosis.
External links
Online editions
- (German) Die Verwandlung at DigBib.org (text, pdf, HTML)
- The Metamorphosis, translated 2009 by Ian Johnston of Malaspina University-College
Vancouver Island University is a comprehensive, four-year, postsecondary institution serving Vancouver Island and coastal British Columbia. Established in 1969 as Malaspina College, it has grown into an institution that plays an important role in the educational, cultural, and economic life of the...
, Nanaimo, BC, translated by David Wyllie
- The Metamorphosis via LibriVox
LibriVox is an online digital library of free public domain audiobooks, read by volunteers and is probably, since 2007, the world's most prolific audiobook publisher...
(audiobook, Ian Johnston translation)
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